City Could Lose $40M if Bond Isn't Approved

City councilors were still not pleased that they have been asked to approve an additional $3.3 million to complete the Portsmouth Middle School project, but they approved a first reading of the measure on Monday night.

They also decided to hold a public hearing on the proposed bond on April 15 followed by a vote on whether to approve it.

On March 19, councilors learned from Jim LaPosta, chief architectural office for JCJ Architects in Hartford, Conn., the project requires the additional funding because the original middle school has so many serious structural deficiencies that were not discovered by Gilbane Construction until they began that phase of the project.

He told the council then that when Gilbane Construction began work on the current Portsmouth Middle School building, a number of serious structural problems were discovered that increased the cost of the project from the $37.5 million that was appropriated in 2009 to $40.8 million.

Some of those problems include deteriorated concrete, unsuitable steel bearing conditions and lead paint on existing structural steel in Phase 2. In Phase 1, he said there was a delay by the utility company to provide permanent gas service, which required a temporary tank farm and was very expensive. They also found clay tile in the existing walls instead of solid brick.

On Monday night, City Councilor Esther Kennedy said she still had some serious questions about the bond. She wanted to know, "If we do not approve it, what will happen to the building?" and "Where does the state stand if we do not approve funding for the building?"

City Manager John Bohenko said Steve Bartlett, the business administrator for the Portsmouth Schools, wrote a letter where he states the city would lose more than $40 million in reimbursement money from the state Department of Education if the city chose not to complete the original $37.5 million project.

Bohenko said the city would also receive a portion of the additional bond funds back from the state, if approved by the council.

City Councilor Christ Dwyer, who serves as co-chair of the Joint Middle School Building Committee,

“Any additional money would be covered under the reimbursement,” Bohenko said.

City Councilor Chris Dwyer, a third of the building wouldn’t be done and it happens to be the third that connects the other portions of the building said LaPosta would bring back some drawings to actually show people what the plans would look like if the project doesn't receive the additional $3.3 million and is not completed.

The bottom line is that the middle third of the project, which connects the original middle school and the middle school addition, would not be completed and students and faculty would not be able to walk from one part of the middle school to the other without going outside, Dwyer said.

City Councilor Brad Lown said the council should approve the bond to complete the school for the benefit of the students and the community. “No one up here would want to jeopardize losing $50 million in state aid,” he said.

“If we don’t have a definitive answer, it would be imprudent to hold up the completion of the school,” Lown said.

Assistant Mayor Robert Lister said he favored moving the bond request to a public hearing on April 15, but still has many questions he wants answered before he would vote on it.

"I just think we owe it to the community to look at all of the options," Kennedy added.